My musings regarding GNU/Linux, GNU/BSD and GNU/Minix. I am in particular partial towards Debian GNU/Linux and Arch GNU/Linux. Generally these are my comments towards topics related to "Free as in Freedom" software and tips for installing and configuring Debian GNU/Linux and Arch GNU/Linux systems on laptops and other generics.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Debian GNU/Hurd trial installation

I downloaded both the DVD and the cd1 from here. I went ahead and downloaded it owing to increased activity and interest in the project by students from the GSoC project. The DVD iso download was corrupted, so downloaded the cd1 of the distribution. CD1 on hp tx1301au installation was stopped since the installer did not identify and hard disks which can be used. After posting the issue on the mailing lists, I was adviced to select IDE(legacy mode) in the bios. This was not possible with my laptop. HP has not given me any options to play with the bios settings.

Next the cd was tried out on dell m501r. Here the installer booted to graphical mode!!!!, but, behold..,, It did not recognise the cd drive itself, so it did not find the installation medium(strange). But seeing GNU/HURD run a graphical installer has kept my hopes high on this project. The installer steps are the same with Debian GNU/Linux. So anybody who has installed Debian GNU/Linux should feel at home. Congrats to the Debian GNU/Hurd team on the accomplishment.

Anybody wanting to install Debian GNU/Hurd, my recommendation would be to dust out that old desktop of yours and install. This may work out because the drivers available with Debian GNU/Hurd are the driver which have been ported from Linux kernel 2.*. So, there is all possibility of your older hardware playing nice with Debian GNU/Linux. Any further questions can be put to the mailing lists. The mailing list replies are simple and quick.

All the best with ur Debian GNU/Hurd installation. We are nearing the dream of RMS regarding the completely FaiF Operating system.